Salman Latif is a software engineer with a specific interest in social media, big data and real-world solutions using the two.Other than that, he is a bit of a gypsy. He also writes in his own blog. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter .

Google has released a new data compression algorithm called 'Zopfli.' This algorithm compresses data to a smaller size, thus allowing quicker data transfer speeds online.

Google has released a new open-source data compression algorithm dubbed ‘Zopfli.’ The name is inspired from a Swiss bread recipe, also called Zopfli. The search giant hopes that with this new algorithm, data transfer speeds across the web can be significantly bolstered.

Google claims that the new Zopfli algorithm can compress data up to 8% more than the currently prevalent zlib software library. With such better compression, Zopfli ensures that the data can be transferred online at better speeds and also allows for quicker loading of web pages.

According to a software engineer, Lode Vandevenne, who has implemented the Zopfli algorithm, “The higher data density is achieved by using more exhaustive compression techniques, which make the compression a lot slower, but do not affect the decompression speed.”

Zopfli is essentially only a compression software and does not come with the feature of decompression. To decompress the files which have been compressed using Zopfli, existing software solutions can be used.

The direct beneficiary of this new algorithm would be the mobile users who are always irked by their heavy data usage when using online services. With better data compression, they will be able to surf across the web and access a greater amount of content while incurring less costs.

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